Blumarine / Fall 2012 RTW

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In a Milan that has lately been much concerned with a dark-side sensuality on one hand, and military-drab on the other, Anna Molinari came out all guns blazing with quite the opposite on both counts. Silvio Berlusconimay be gone, but where does that leave the fun-loving regazza who craves everything over-the-top, hot, and colorful? Well, she’s safe in Molinari’s Blumarine world, a place where no amount of austerity and seriousness can faze a girl who lives to sizzle. Even when she’s apparently off to the ski slopes.

Which is where her romp around the trends began for fall—decked out in huge, super-bright Mongolian lamb chubbies and optic-white skintight all-in-ones, teetering on silver booties. This, let it be noted, is a girl who can make even thermals and moon boots sexy—worn with hot pants, naturally. Après-ski, she’ll work a total leopard-spot look, coat, muffler, tights, boots, fingerless gloves, and all. For day wear? Perhaps a short A-line suit in blinding silver leather. And when she’s going out for the evening? Disco-bound, she’ll be in spray-on, sequined, neon graffitied jeggings, with a blinding holographic jean jacket, and a pair of studded hoop earrings bigger than any hoop earrings ever known to womankind.

Still, kudos for that attention to “trend.” As amusingly in-your-face as this Blumarine performance may be, it does happen to bop along in time with quite a lot of stuff we’ve been noticing on many runways. Oversize fun furs? Check. Puffers? Check. Black dresses, slit to the side? Check. Demi-nude evening dresses, scattered with paillettes in strategic places? Check. This may not be what intellectuals would consider a collection of serious note. But then again, it’s hard not to go with the flow, sit back, and enjoy the energy of a gloom-defying show like this. For the first time in Milan, people from front row to back were laughing as they left. And for that cheerful interlude, we must be grateful.